Babak J. Mehrara, MD

Babak Mehrara talks about the expertise of Memorial Sloan Kettering plastic surgeons and how patients with breast cancer and head and neck cancer benefit from recent advances in reconstructive surgery.

I am a plastic surgeon who specializes in cancer reconstruction. I have specialized training in a microsurgery and extensive experience in reconstruction with perforator flaps, including DIEP and SGAPs for breast reconstruction. The term “microsurgery” refers to surgery in which tissues are transplanted from one region of the body to another by reconnecting small blood vessels using a microscope.

Perforator flaps are the latest and most advanced microsurgical techniques available for reconstruction. These techniques are an improvement on traditional microsurgery since in perforator flaps there is much less trauma to the area from which transplanted tissues are collected. For example, in the DIEP flap, the rectus muscle (commonly known as the “6-pack”) of the abdomen is preserved, while in traditional TRAM flap procedures this muscle is cut resulting in more pain, longer recovery, and higher chance of hernias after surgery. I have lectured nationally and internationally on breast reconstruction and have published extensively on the topic.

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My research interest is lymphedema — the swelling of an extremity that develops in some cancer patients who have lymph nodes removed for cancer treatment. I have developed a number of models to study lymphedema in the laboratory with a goal of understanding how lymphedema develop. Our long-term goal is to design novel methods including surgery and medical treatments to prevent and treat lymphedema. Depending on the circumstances, I offer liposuction, lymph node transfer, or lymphatic by-pass procedures to appropriate surgical candidates. Our NIH funded laboratory has collaborations with researchers at Stanford University, MD Anderson Cancer Center, USC Medical Center, and Beth Israel Medical Center.